Can You Answer These Questions a Librarian Would Be Able to Answer?

By: Jennifer Post
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Can You Answer These Questions a Librarian Would Be Able to Answer?
Image: miodrag ignjatovic / E+ / Getty Images

About This Quiz

Librarians do not get enough credit. Seriously. Especially school librarians. They have to keep things organized, help kids find books, keep people quiet (which is hard if you know anything about kids when you tell them to be quiet) and research things others can't seem to find. Then there are your neighborhood librarians who make sure that the books, research materials, movies and games are available when you want them.

Librarians need to have excellent listening and speaking skills and a flexible schedule. Working weekends, evenings and holidays is not uncommon for both both academic and public librarians. Did you know that you need a degree to be a librarian? To be a school librarian, usually a bachelor's degree in education is required, but really any bachelor's degree will help you get a job as a librarian. A master's degree in library science can be required by some bigger metropolitan libraries, however. 

If you're going the master's degree route, make sure to do thorough research, since there are fields of focus with some libraries, like law or medical. You want the program you choose to fit with your career goals. Getting a job in a public library is a great way to jump-start your career and increase your chances of being accepted to a master's program. Do you feel ready to answer questions that a librarian would know? Take the quiz and find out!


What is the definition of information?
Data that provides an answer to a question
A collection of researched data
Random data
Innate knowledge
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Information is any entity, mostly related to data, that provides an answer to a question or takes away uncertainty in a situation. Information is closely related to data because while data deals with values, information is the understanding of real things or concepts.

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What does WIPO stand for?
World Input of Political Overview
World Intellectual Property Organization
Wonder In the Philosophical Ordinary
Walk In, Problems Out
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

WIPO stands for the World Intellectual Property Organization. Intellectual property refers to a product, thought or design that is derived from original creativity and that one has the right to the work, and can apply of a patent, copyright or trademark.

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When did the term "information science" come to fruition?
1938
1959
1947
1968
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The term came to use in 1959, but the first formal Information Science program wasn't started until 1963, when Georgia Institute of Technology established it. It then gained popularity and started appearing in the course books of many other colleges and universities.

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What is "the invisible web"?
Web pages that are blocked by parental settings
The part of the internet that is hidden from search engines
The part of the web that hasn't been discovered by anyone yet
The part of the web that has yet to be created
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Parts of the web are hidden by search engines, not in an effort to withhold anything or because the subject matter is unsavory, but because you need a very specific search to find it. Search engines just also don't have access to certain areas of information, such as databases that police and hospitals use.

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What language does the term "communication" stem from?
French
Latin
Italian
Greek
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The word "communication" comes from the Latin "communis" and "communicare." Communis is a noun meaning common, while communicare is a verb meaning to make something common.

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When was the Dewey Decimal System started?
1873
1902
1884
1865
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The organization system was created by Melvin Dewey in 1873. It wasn't until 1876, however, that the system was first published.

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Who invented the World Wide Web?
Steve Jobs
Tim Berners-Lee
Bill Gates
Joe Macmillan
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. Fun fact, his proposal for the Web was actually rejected the first time it was presented.

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What is the standard size of a catalog card?
4x6
3x5
8 1/2 x 11
4x4
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Catalog cards used to be smaller, at 2x5, which was also called the Harvard College size. The bigger card eventually won out mostly because it was a size people were already used to, as it was the standard size of post cards.

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Where was the first and oldest university library located?
Cambridge University
Princeton University
Calcutta University
University of Delhi
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The first library started up in the 1870s. There are 39 department libraries, a central library, two campus libraries and two more libraries spread across the 7 campuses. There are over 10 million books across all of the libraries.

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Where can a deleted email be found?
Favorites
Trash
Inbox
Junk
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When an email is deleted, it's not gone forever. It goes into the Trash folder, and can be moved back into the inbox, another folder, or deleted altogether.

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Which of the following is a Learning Management System?
Moodle
Firefox
Google
Brittanica
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A Learning Management System keeps track of things like documenting, tracking and reporting educational courses, training programs, etc. The concept derives directly from e-learning

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How many digits are in an ISBN?
27
13
15
9
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

An ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number, and is used as a book identifier. They can be purchased from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency, and each and every book will have different ISBN, even if it is the same book in different formats.

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What is MeSH?
A website
A dictionary
A thesaurus
A government library agency
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings and is the controlled thesaurus for indexing articles for PubMed, and consist of a controlled vocabulary. It was created, and is updated by, the United States National Library of Medicine.

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What does "call-number" mean?
Book number
Book number and class number
Class number
Aisle number and book number
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Call Number of a book is how books are organized on the shelf at libraries. It is read from left to right as normal, and consists of letters and numbers.

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How many digits are in an ISSN?
10
5
8
12
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The ISSN is different from the ISBN because it is the name no matter what form the publication is in. If a publication comes in an ebook, audiobook and print, they will all have the same ISSN. This system is for periodicals, journals, newspapers and magazines.

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When were CD-ROMs made?
1972
1985
1995
1989
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

While made in 1985, they weren't popularized in the '90s. They were used for distributing and software and data for computers and some video game consoles.

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What is LYCOS?
A name
A search engine
A database
A system of organization
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This web portal was established in 1995 from Carnegie Mellon University. It includes email, social networking and entertainment.

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What is a glossary?
A type of paper
A list of terms with definitions
A guidebook in the library
A website
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The glossary is always in alphabetical order, and provides definitions. It can also be known as a clavis.

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What does "protocol" mean?
Workplace guidelines
A set of rules that govern all data communications systems
How you should conduct yourself when in a library
How to write catalog cards
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Protocol is the way that computers communicate with each other. There are many different ones, since there are multiple ways that computers can communicate with one another.

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What is the purpose of descriptive cataloging?
To assist librarians in describing books to others
To be able to find a book based on what the cover looks like
To enable users to find and identify a book
To describe what the aisle looks like that the book can be found it
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This cataloging is the process of recording items by certain attributes of the book to make it easier to find. The two types of this cataloging are Anglo-American Cataloging Rules and Resource Description and Access.

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What are the parts of an index?
Descriptive and location
Title and author
ISBN and ISSN
Aisle number and author
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Indexing is a way to make books super easy to find. The word derives from the latin "indicare" which means to point out or to indicate.

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What is a subject heading?
The heading under the main heading
Word or words meant to capture the overall idea of a subject
The main heading of a piece of writing
What librarians use in order to find things when a user can't
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

There are specific lists for subject headings that are usually broken down by subject matter in order to make it easier to find what you're looking for. The two popular subject heading lists are the Library of Congress Subject Headings and Sears List of Subject Headings.

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What is vocabulary control?
A list of terms that must be used to to index, and search, for documents
A list of words you are allowed to use in a school library
The only words you can use in a certain search
Controls on a computer system that ban searching certain words
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A controlled vocabulary is one in which there is only one term or notation in the vocabulary for any one concept. One of its goals is to establish the size and scope of each topic and how much of it can be searched.

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What is the root word of library?
Liba
Liber
Lib
Rary
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The latin word "liber" translates to book. In German and Russian, the Latinized Greek word "bibliotheca" is the origin word for library.

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How many categories are in the Dewey Decimal System?
10
100
1000
150
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The DDS breaks human knowledge into 10 basic categories. The categories are: computer science, philosophy and psychology, religion, social sciences, language, science, technology, arts and recreation, literature and history and geography.

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What is an accession number?
The number given to a book when it is lost
A number given to a publication upon acquisition
The number given to each library user
The number assigned to library employees
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The accession number is usually give to a publication upon acquisition or cataloging, and is often alpha-numeric. If the work is removed from the collection, the number is not reused.

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What are the storage areas in a library called?
Racks
Stacks
Shelves
Lines
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is where you find the books in a library. It isn't the reading area, but the area where the books are stored and organized.

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Where are catalog cards stored?
Catalog closet
Catalog cabinet
Catalog keeper
Catalog log
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You don't see these much in libraries anymore, as they have gone digital. There are some instances where you will see them, like in older libraries and some universities.

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What is shelf rectification?
Fixing a broken shelf
Putting misplaced books back where they belong
Reorganizing a shelf for new inventory
Adding new shelves to a stack
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When books are put back on the wrong shelf, an actual human has to go and put them back where they belong. This process is called shelf rectification.

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What does "weeding" refer to?
Taking unwanted growth out of a garden
Being selective with which books are accepted
Getting rid of outdated and unused books
Selecting the best employees
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

There are certain criteria to use when deciding what to weed out of a collection. Things like needing to make space, more current information and poor quality are all reasons to weed publications out.

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What was the first museum in the world?
Russian State Library
American Memorial Library
The Library of Congress
Library of Alexandria
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Library of Alexandria, located in Alexandria, Egypt was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion. It came to be known as the capital of knowledge and learning.

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What was the first purely English dictionary?
Macmillan Dictionary
A Table Alphabeticall
The Oxford English dictionary
Merriam-Webster
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This dictionary was created in London in 1604 by Robert Cawdrey. It was never considered a comprehensive work, as it featured just over 2,500 words.

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Who invented ebooks?
Michael Hart
Dexter Morgan
Bill Stein
Mark Twain
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Michael Hart was also an author and typed most of the earlier ebooks by himself. He also spent his life digitizing works that had an expired copyright and making them available for free.

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What is the search engine for scientific information?
Dogpile
Scirus
Yahoo
Alta Vista
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Scirus was first launched in 2001 as a science-centric search engine. Scirus was not limited to computer sciences and IT, and the site was retired in 2014.

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What is the process of moving up and down a Word document called?
Panning
Scrolling
Flying
Sifting
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When you want to move up or down in a Word document, you simply scroll through the pages either with a mouse or a keypad. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard to achieve the same effect.

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You Got:
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miodrag ignjatovic / E+ / Getty Images